This invention relates to heart valves for replacement of defective natural valves and more particularly to heart valve prostheses that use a pair of pivoting valve members.
Heart valve prostheses are essentially check valves that operate hemodynamically as a result of the pumping action of the heart. An early valve of this type used a ball-and-cage arrangement; however, later valve designs have used a disc for the valve member, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,411. Pivoting disc-type valves are shown in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,546,711 and in 3,859,668.
Heart valves have also been designed which use two members or leaflets instead of one disc, and such leaflets may rotate about parallel axes as a part of opening and closing of the valve. An early version of such a bi-leaflet valve is shown in British Pat. No. 1,160,008, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,268 also shows a valve of this type. Another such two-leaflet heart valve is shown in my U.S. Application, Ser. No. 894,166, filed Apr. 6, 1978, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,639.